Age of Adepts

At this moment, the Heart of Principles had been contaminated by foreign law energies!

The dark-red beating heart seemed to have been visibly stained a dark gray color.

That was Cerveris’ curse energy!

Until this energy was removed, the contaminated Heart of Principles would not be helpful to Greem.

“Lucia, do you see the gray parts? Hurry and cut them out! Be careful not to let the gray parts touch your skin. Otherwise, with your Physique, there is no way you can survive the curse power.”

Lucia’s hands trembled slightly.

How many times in the dead of the night had she woken up screaming, haunted by the memory of that colossal, terrifying flame giant at the moment right before her death?

Now, that giant was lying in front of her, and she had an enchanted scalpel with which to slice his heart. If her hand were to slip and stab the heart slightly, could he still live?

For some reason, this thought took up the entirety of Lucia’s mind the moment it appeared. Her whole mind was filled with this ridiculous idea and insuppressible impulse. On the other hand, the Fate powers that she had been studying for all these years were subtly warning her not to do so!

In the past, the emotional Lucia would have given in to her feelings and did what she wanted to do. However, after being surrounded by the Fate powers for so long, even she had unknowingly gained the habit of following the will of Fate and having it decide everything for her.

If Fate was giving out warnings to her, it must have foreseen something bad for her. What could that be?

Lucia wondered silently, her hand showing no signs of hesitation at all. Like the most precise machine, she accurately and correctly incised and removed pieces of gray flesh from the heart before disposing of them.

Incisions of this kind undoubtedly inflicted tremendous damage to the Heart of Principles, but that was still better than leaving it in a situation of turbulent laws for an extended period.

Greem might be unconscious, but his 34 points of Physique still gave him tremendous regenerative powers. The hole where the flesh had been cut out healed at a visible rate. Countless flesh tendrils reached out from the muscle fibers around the wound and meshed together.

It was almost as if every strand of tissue and every bone in Greem’s body had a mind of its own. Truly, every high-grade adept was a monster in every sense of the word!

They were monsters, both in biology and in mentality!

Lucia was working her hardest to help Alice with the operation. When she finally straightened her back and wiped the cold sweat off her head, she came to a sudden understanding.

The destruction of the Arcane Empire was not the doing of any one individual or entity. It was a certainty in the development of civilization!

For a civilization or empire to ascend to greater heights while it was not yet ready would only attract countless predators’ attention and malice. These invasions were not decisions made by one or two individual predators, but the natural result of countless civilizations coming into conflict and devouring each other.

The flame giant had been incomparably powerful in her eyes, a mighty, omnipotent existence that could destroy the world with a single wave of its hands. However, in other predators’ eyes, he was probably no more than one of the weaker ‘scavengers’!

That was why it was only a cowardly act for her to have directed all her resentment for the Arcane Empire’s death onto him alone. That was because she didn’t dare to challenge the many powerful existences that were actually responsible for the invasion. She didn’t dare make enemies out of entire worlds. She had compressed all her hatred and agony and projected them onto the one concrete enemy before her.

The more she understood the reality of the situation, the greater Lucia’s suffering became!

The kind of courage required to declare war against entire worlds and planes and against the powerful beings that had invaded the Arcane Empire was not something that a mere Second Grade arcanist and First Grade adept that had found herself in a foreign world could ever muster.

However, even though she might not have the power required to exact her vengeance, she could still scream as loud as she could in her heart. If she didn’t even have the courage to shout out in anger at her enemies, then what exactly was the point of her existence, of her commitments!?

Greem gradually woke up from his coma as the foreign law energies were slowly removed from his body.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was quite an unbelievable sight: a young and pretty girl whose eyes were burning with the fires of vengeance shouted at him, “Once I’m powerful, I will challenge and defeat all of you!” Having said that, she turned and ran out of the room.

Greem’s mind was powerful enough to process all the information in front of him.

He could very clearly see that the girl’s clothes, hands, and even face were covered in blood from the operation on him. Her young and pretty face was also somewhat familiar to him.

Greem was barely able to lift his head amidst all the confusion. He ignored his open chest cavity, ignored the numerous gouges in his body, and looked towards the bloody and exhausted Alice.

“Don’t look at me. Even I can’t tell that girl what to do.” Even as worn out as she was, the sweetest smile still appeared on Alice’s face when she looked upon Greem.

“It’s been hard for you! Go, take a rest. Leave the rest to me,” Greem looked at Alice, sorry for what she had gone through, and consoled her.

Indeed, high-grade adepts like him had plenty of means by which to regenerate, as long as the enemy had not destroyed their soul. However, given his current grade and the severity of his injuries, this recovery process could take upwards of decades or centuries.

It was simple- high-grade adepts had basically developed their physical potential to its limits. The healing potions that could have healed any wounds in the past were barely effective on them now. Ordinary injuries could scarcely leave a trace on their bodies. However, any lasting damage would often be law injuries that could not be fully cured.

Now that Greem was conscious again, he could take over his own treatment. It would undoubtedly be an extremely long and expensive process!

“Chip, perform a full-body scan immediately and lay out the corresponding treatment and recovery plan.”

[Beep. Order received. Full-body scan in process.]

Soon, a three-dimensional projection appeared in Greem’s mind. The Chip indicated all the severely injured parts of Greem’s body in dark and light red–and there were a lot of them–while a series of treatments and recovery plans were listed to the side.

Greem looked at the numerous red spots on the projection as well as the long list of resources required for his treatment. He sighed. He had no choice but to revise the clan’s development plan and leave a hundred-year period for him to recover.

It couldn’t be helped. The injuries Greem had sustained were too serious!

It was fortunate that he had won this war. Otherwise, it might have taken him a long three hundred years to recover fully.

…………

Graybear Hill, the Giant’s Castle.

As a worldly territory that had been in the Gaia Clan’s possession for several thousands of years, the Giant’s Castle was a famous place in the Central Lands and, perhaps, even the World of Adepts.

Ever since the ancestor of the Gaia Clan unexpectedly discovered the well-preserved corpse of a Titan in an abandoned ruin out in space and successfully extracted its bloodline, the Gaia Clan had undergone a meteoric rise. They became the most powerful bloodline clan of the Central Lands, known throughout the World of Adepts.

Unlike elementium adepts, bloodline adepts and particularly bloodline clans were reliant on their bloodline’s purity and growth potential. However, these two factors were the most problematic factors to control.

The greater the potential of the bloodline, the more difficult it was to produce offspring. That was the central dilemma that troubled all bloodline clans, preventing them from developing any further. They might all possess incomparable individual combat prowess, but they were repeatedly unable to grow into significant organizations due to the limited numbers of their members.

Mornashen Gaia might be the most powerful individual in the Central Lands, but there were no more than seven other bloodline adepts in the Gaia Clan who could be considered powerful aside from him. It was practically a single line of succession. Even the slightest unexpected incident could cut the legacy of this bloodline clan short.

That was why Mornashen Gaia represented absolute authority in his clan, as well as the unrelenting barrier that stood between the clan and their enemies.

Today, the Giant’s Castle was shrouded in a fog of worry.

That was because Mornashen Gaia had been injured!

The clan leader could be injured! If anyone had ever made such a joke in front of the Gaia Clan members, they would have laughed and punched them in the face. However, this joke had become a bloody reality today, and the members of the Gaia Clan couldn’t help but become anxious.

In a hidden room inside the Giant’s Castle.

Two middle-aged adepts, one male and one female, stood in the middle of the room with concerned expressions. Mornashen Gaia lay on the bed, propped up on his back against the back of the bed.

“Alright, alright, it’s just a few small wounds. Look at your faces,” Mornashen might have returned injured, but he appeared as composed as ever. It was as if he wasn’t bothered in the slightest. “Right, speaking of which, what was the conclusion of the battle after I left?”

“My lord, the conclusion was completely unexpected!” The middle-aged male adept had a solemn expression on his face still. He strode forward and reported, “The legendary fire adept managed to defeat Cerveris after you left and forced him to flee the battle.”

“Oh?” Mornashen’s expression changed. He slowly straightened his body. “So, you mean, the Crimson Clan has won!”

“Yes, my lord! According to the observers we left behind, Adept Kerala switched sides at the last moment and helped the Crimson Clan against Freed and the others. It was a complete victory for the Crimson Clan. All the Fourth Grade adepts fled back to their homes, and most of the forces they left behind have become captives of the Crimson Clan.”

Mornashen couldn’t care less about the details. He had fallen into deep thought. The two core members of the Gaia Clan could only silently bow and exit the room when they noticed this.

“The world’s about to change.”

After a long while, Mornashen sighed to himself.

There was no one else here now, so there was no need for him to put on an appearance anymore.

Without his bloodline power actively suppressing his injuries, three clusters of golden flames appeared on Mornashen’s resilient body, crackling as they burned.

Damned Greem! How were his fire laws so troublesome to deal with?

The powerful clan leader of the Gaia Clan cursed in his heart. An expression of pain and regret appeared on his face!